Your Right to Know

WASHINGTON — Prospects for congressional passage of a U.S. immigration overhaul looked bleak
yesterday, but some House Republicans signaled they would offer a way for the 11 million illegal
immigrants already in the country to get legal status that could be portrayed as something other
than a pathway to citizenship.

The Democratic-controlled Senate on Thursday approved a bipartisan immigration bill backed by
President Barack Obama, but leaders of the Republican-controlled House are not expected to take
action on the measure.

Instead, the House is charting its own course because many conservative Republicans firmly
oppose the citizenship provisions in the Senate version as “amnesty” for law-breakers.

But a proposal being talked about in the House as an alternative to the Senate bill would offer
possible citizenship in the future after current illegal immigrants spend at least a decade in a
legalized status short of citizenship. The approach is similar to the Senate-passed bill.

The difference might be one of semantics, in which the term “pathway to citizenship” can be
averted. But the House approach might offer at least a glimmer of hope for enactment of immigration
reform any time soon — in part just because it would originate in the Republican-controlled
chamber.

Rep. John Carter, R-Texas, one of seven Republicans and Democrats who have been working
privately on a House immigration bill, is among those crafting the alternative.

When asked how the House might address the central challenge of what to do about the 11 million
illegal immigrants — most of them Latino — Carter sketched out a plan that tracks closely to the
measure passed in the Senate.

In his approach, the 11 million would spend 10 years in a legalized status that provides them
with work permits. At some point after that, they could be considered for permanent resident
status, followed by possible citizenship.

A senior House aide, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said such a plan could be presented in
the House later this year, but that it would have to contain some tougher provisions than the
Senate measure.

The Senate bill, approved on Thursday by a 68-32 vote with 14 of the Senate’s 46 Republicans
going along, would put millions of illegal immigrants on a pathway to legal status and citizenship.
Republicans in the House immediately called it “dead on arrival.”

House Speaker John Boehner, R-West Chester, has said he will not advance an immigration bill
unless it has the support of a majority of the House’s 234 Republicans, ruling out chances of a
Senate bill passed largely by Democrats with some Republican support.

Rep. Tom Cole, R-Okla., said in an interview that he did not envision an immigration bill on the
House floor this year “unless it’s very late in the year” and “may go into next year” as lawmakers
deal with more pressing budget and financial issues.